The Monday Memo #7

Well, last week sure was a busy one around here. It involved more plaster dust than a working pottery has clay, fumes so noxious that the “kids” all wanted to leave home, a perfect new creative space at Marmalade HQ, a visit from Bailor, a periwinkle blue leather couch, a highly frustrating number of chocolate cooking fails, and Thanksgiving. Ah, Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving was completely *inSANE. It included a large loaf of crusty French bread, a jar of cranberry sauce, a fair amount of butter and 1½ lbs of roast turkey. Let whoever has eaten a perfectly *SANE diet since they started this whole SSoS thing cast the first stone! Not even our beloved Jonathan could claim that.

Those sandwiches were awesome. And then Friday, well, that wasn’t so awesome. I was as lethargic as a drunken slug, had the headache from hell, and felt altogether blah. I blame the bread entirely. Happy taste buds, sad belly. And never have I been so thoroughly excited to drink a smoothie that had 6 cups of raw spinach in it.

Here’s where my head was on Thanksgiving morning, before the *inSANEity began:

And for glorious girlfriends who’ve helped make my 2012 so much better: Lorrie Walter, Marjorie Ferris, Joan Yarkosky, Michaela Van Putten, Michelle Fusman, Jennifer Meehan, Penny Jones, Minta Hale, Susan Shaw, Becky Schoen, Cindy Kelly…and so many other fabulous friends who do all sorts of little things on a daily basis to help and to nurture. Even when I am a total PITA. THANK YOU!

And I wouldn’t be here without the straight-talking I get from Marc Levine, Charlie Owen, Jeff James, Geoff Nyheim, and Reid Downey. THANK YOU!

My life is completely transformed from the life I had 3.5 years ago. I do not have words to express the gratitude in my heart for the 4 people who told me I could do it, empowered me, and who now support me so completely on my journey: Marc Levine, Geoff Nyheim, Charlie Owen and Jonathan Bailor. It is absolutely true when I say I would not be where or who I am today without you in my world. Your influence in my life is profound.

Here’s stuff I made and ate and wrote about last week, in case you missed them in all the excitement that was Thanksgiving – if you’re in America, that is.

Events over at Marmalade HQ included the finishing of the new creative space as the walls were painted the color of butter, the trim was fitted, and all the lights and sockets were hooked up. I am absolutely loving it. Now I can create, cook, shoot and write all in one contiguous space. IT. IS. AWESOME. It helps that I had a fabulous contractor who finished on time, on budget and did fantastic work. Not to mention that he moved furniture, hung blinds and secured my pull-up bar for me. Just because.

In other news, it was pretty darn handy having Jonathan in the house when Charlie showed up with the new periwinkle blue leather couch in the back of his truck – I immediately put those bulging Bailor muscles to good use. I realized I have a lot of amazing people in my life, as well as a ridiculous number of vases. I went to IKEA for a rug and came home with white porcelain dishes; because you can never have too many of those, and I discovered that Turkey Day Eve is the very best time of the year to go to IKEA. No one else was there. It was just me, a bunch of room sets and more allen keys (wrenches) than you could count in a lifetime. Plus, girlfriends came to clean after the building work was done, because it’s amazing the places that plaster dust gets into. I also finally came to accept that making a mess in the kitchen and creating dirty dishes have become core competencies of mine.

On the food front there were an awful lot of tomatoes, tarragon, and probably not surprisingly, turkey. There was also an unbelievable amount of chocolate, but nothing worthwhile to show for it. That 100% cocoa chocolate can be right tricky you know. However, do not despair! I will make you *SANE chocolate stuff if it’s the last thing I do.

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Melanie -can’t wait for the peanut butter mousse and the cranberry scones!
Thanks for the recipes – they are such a great guide.ReplyCancel

carrie-Melanie – Cranberry Scones will be up later this week, PB Mousse at the weekend!!!ReplyCancel

Chris -OMG! Love your recipes! Not to pressure or anything but I could really use the PB Mousse for my boy, like yesterday! They are getting a little bored with the pumpkin “custard” I have been making, and both DH and DS are PB fiends! Thanks for all you do!ReplyCancel

carrie-It will be up at the weekend! Hang in there :-) THANK YOU so much for your enthusiasm and support.ReplyCancel

Julie -Happy thanksgiving Carrie! I had the same craving for a green smoothie the day after! I’m very thankful that I found your blog. We ate a celery soup with cheesy biscuits tonight and I made an obscene quantity of the poppy seed brussel sprouts. Thank you!ReplyCancel

carrie-Thanks, Julie for the very kind words. Thrilled you love the Brussels!!ReplyCancel

Julie -I had 26 oz of brussels sprouts instead of 10 so I went for it. We got one of those giant stalks in our farm box and it didn’t fit in the fridge with the turkey. So delicious. I am excited for the mousse and the scones too!ReplyCancel

Ann -Hi Carrie,
I made the “rice pudding” and now I eat it all the time! I love it! Thank you for coming up with something easy, good for me, and ridiculously tasty… Now, more importantly, I am writing you because I can’t stop thinking about that peanut butter mousse. Hurry please! And thanks for all the awesome recipes :) I am going to make those chocolate espresso cookies tomorrow. Yum!ReplyCancel

carrie-Ann – it will be up tomorrow!! THANK YOU for your kind words. It means a lot to know that these recipes are helpful to you.ReplyCancel